


grief (george)

by zpyral



Series: the five stages of grief [1]
Category: Video Blogging RPF
Genre: Denial of Feelings, Friends to Lovers, Hurt/Comfort, Jealousy, M/M, Mutual Pining, Pining, george is an idiot
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-09-30
Updated: 2020-10-15
Packaged: 2021-03-07 20:00:31
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 5
Words: 5,440
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26723290
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/zpyral/pseuds/zpyral
Summary: George goes through the five stages of grief in the process of realizing his feelings for his best friend.
Relationships: Clay | Dream/GeorgeNotFound (Video Blogging RPF)
Series: the five stages of grief [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1944925
Comments: 66
Kudos: 870





	1. denial

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> hi!! so this is george's pov of the 'five stages of grief' trope that i did previously with dream, you don't have to read dream's part first, it doesn't matter. i hope you guys enjoy :-)

_ denial  _

  
  


george was lying in bed, facing straight up towards his ceiling,  _ trying  _ to go to sleep. it was inconvenient that dream had decided to call him, as energetic as ever, right as he settled into bed. it was even more inconvenient that george had never purposely skipped a call from dream in his life, and he wasn’t planning on starting tonight. 

his phone was laid on his chest, the rough vibrations from dream’s screaming lightly danced on his ribs. george was trying really hard to be annoyed with his friend, for calling him so late at night purely to be obnoxious, but george was smiling and laughing along as well. his eyes were closed, as he was too exhausted to keep them open any more. 

dream made a joke, and received no response. after a couple moments of silence, dream decided to speak up. 

“ _ george?” _ the voice came from his phone, quieter and kinder than dream’s voice had been all night. george tried replying, but his mind was already halfway asleep. all that came out was a light hum. 

“you still awake?” george hummed again in response. he heard dream laugh quietly on the other end. “goodnight then. love you.”

george didn’t remember hearing the dial noise play, he wasn’t actually sure if the call had ever ended that night, george’s phone was dead when he woke up. 

in the morning, george would ignore the fact that he dreamed about some faceless person sleeping with their head on george’s chest, in the same spot george had rested his phone the night prior. george liked to ignore things like that. it made his life easier. 

  
  


the day george met dream for the first time, he couldn’t be bothered with ignoring the overwhelming emotions he felt. 

he ran into dream’s arms and squeezed as hard as he could. his heart thumped against dream’s chest. when he pulled back, getting a view of dream’s face for the first time, he thought he might die on the spot.  _ at least i’d die happy,  _ he thought. 

george shoved a camera into dream’s face obnoxiously, promising that this footage would never see the light of day. he gave his phone to wilbur, making him take endless pictures of them together. he took videos of their knees knocking together, of them playing footsie under the bench. he took videos of every single interaction he had with dream, whether dream’s face was visible or not. he used the excuse of ‘ _ i want to make a vlog,’  _ and he probably would, but more than anything he just wanted actual proof that this day had happened, that it wasn’t some figment of his imagination. 

they walked to the beach and george sat too close. george didn’t bother ignoring the fuzzy feeling in his stomach when dream didn’t pull away. at some point, their pinky fingers would overlap on the ground beside them, and matching blushes would fill their face. they didn’t talk about it, but their smiles would become a little bit wider. 

when it came time, he took a video of dream leaving him at the airport, only the back of his blond head visible. 

george cried on his train ride home, his face in his hands. he sniffled quietly enough that it wasn’t alarming to any of the other passengers. when he got home he cried a bit harder. loud enough for his puppy too whine as well, as if she knew what was hurting george. 

it had taken dream and george four years to meet up. george wondered if it would take them four years to meet up again. he felt sick at the thought and a few more tears streamed down his face. he was thankful when his brain finally let him fall asleep. 

  
  


from the second that he woke up, george was constantly thinking about dream. how dream felt against his chest when they hugged, how nice dream’s smile was, how dream had the smallest dusting of freckles across his nose. 

_ dream dream dream dream dream.  _

it was becoming increasingly harder to ignore those thoughts. the twisting in his heart was scary and uncontrollable. it took everything in him to remind himself that he didn’t have any other option but to stay quiet about his feelings. 

_ it’s better to suffer in silence than lose dream completely.  _

_ you can get over this. it’s just a stupid, little crush. _

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> this chapter feels a bit shitty to me buttttt idk if just cause i'm a bit stressed. ALSO i need title names for the works because right now it's just grief (george) and grief (dream) so pls help me idk what i should change them to, or if i should change them at all. LOVE YOU GUYSSS


	2. anger

_ anger _

george was in a slump. he didn’t know if it was one of the slumps that just came naturally, from not eating right or forgetting to shower for a week, or if it was the fact that george had expended so much of his energy in meeting dream. 

what wasn’t helping was the fact that he missed dream  _ so much.  _ it wasn’t even just physical, dream hadn’t been texting him back all week. the only sign that dream was alive was a small green ‘online’ symbol that appeared next to his name sometimes in discord. it wasn’t that unusual for dream to go m.i.a., he was a busy man and would sometimes spend a few days holed up for whatever reasons. that reminder didn’t stop george from missing him, though. 

no matter how much george told himself that dream was just inactive for his own personal reasons, a creeping feeling at the back of george’s neck told him that it was because of him. the timing was just too perfect, for dream to suddenly go silent the week after they meet for the first time? it was weird, to say the least. george felt himself get a bit anxious at the thought. 

george would do his daily tasks, as he normally would, but everything became a bit more painful. he began coding for a video idea him and dream had come up with and he found it incredibly hard to focus. the hours were cruelly slow, but by the time night was almost over, george felt he hadn’t gotten a single thing accomplished.

blame it on his bad sleep schedule or the intense longing to talk to dream, but george found himself scrolling through the hours of vlog footage he had taken only days previously. george watched and rewatched clip after clip, even just simple b-roll of dream’s laugh. unsurprisingly, it only made george more eager to talk to dream. 

at that moment, his phone buzzed. he rushed to check it, and slight disappointment sparked in his chest when it was from sapnap. it wasn’t that he didn’t want to talk to sapnap, he was just hoping it had been a specific someone else. 

_ sapnap: hop in teamspeak if ur awake _

george did as he was told, regrettably minimizing the tabs of the unedited vlog. he joined the channel that him, dream, and sapnap all used most often. he immediately noticed that dream was sitting in the channel, and he tried not to get his hopes up. 

“dream?” a pause, “you active?” george waited, holding his breath slightly. several moments of silence went by, and not a word came from dream’s side of the call. 

“nah, i think he’s idle.” said sapnap after a while. george was thankful that sapnap was there to interrupt george’s thoughts. if he hadn’t said something, george didn’t know how long he would’ve waited for dream to show up. 

“that sucks.” george said, “i miss him. he’s barely talked to us since he flew out.” his chest sunk a little bit more at the thought. he had talked to sapnap at various times during the week, but it was the first time george had verbalized how he felt. 

“he’s probably still jetlagged, or something.” sapnap muttered offhand. 

it was a possibility, but it still felt off to george. dream had managed to get his sleep schedule pretty fucked up over the years, but he had almost always made an effort to speak to his friends. 

his mind wandered to the vlog footage, how he had captured every interaction he had with dream.  _ had he gone overboard?  _ was it possible that dream had caught on to george’s weird crush?

“yeah. maybe.” george said quietly, “you don’t think he’s like, weirded out by me or anything?” george sat up in his seat, awaiting sapnap’s answer. he felt the anxiety creeping around the edge of his stomach. 

sapnap laughed loudly on the other end, but it did nothing to ease the tension in george’s chest, “pftt,  _ dream _ ? dude, i don’t think you could ever get dream to dislike you.”

george felt a bit frustrated at sapnap, he  _ really  _ wanted him to take this seriously. it was hard to think about dream not wanting to talk to him because of something george had tried so hard to suppress. george just wanted this to get fixed, so they could all go back to normal. 

they talked about nothing for a while, and after almost an hour sapnap left the call. george was alone now, but he didn’t feel like leaving. he stared at dream’s profile picture in the call for a second, before deciding to go back to looking at the footage. there was always the chance that dream would suddenly show up, and the thought prevented george from being tired in the slightest. 

george was scrolling through the videos, when he became stuck on one clip in particular. it was a shot of himself. george typically wouldn’t have watched it, he found it awkward to watch himself on video, but what caught his attention was how much he was smiling. his eyes were practically gone, reduced to squinting because of how big his grin was. when george hit play, it became clear why. he was staring at dream. 

in the clip, dream was telling some story about the flight over. it wasn’t an exciting story or a funny one really, but you wouldn’t have known that just by watching george. george felt his stomach sink, as he watched himself on the screen. he was  _ giggling _ at jokes that weren’t even funny, like he was a teenager girl trying to win over her crush. 

dream wasn’t stupid. the opposite, really. dream was one of the smartest people he knew, especially about people he knew well. and george was one of the people he knew best.  dream could easily identify what a crush looked like. 

dream  _ knew,  _ he had to know. there was a reason why dream hadn’t texted him all week. dread was pooling in the bottom of george’s stomach.  how had he been such an idiot? he made it so easy for dream to know exactly what george was feeling. 

“dream?” 

there was no reply. george was alone. 

“okay, goodnight then.” he said, to nobody. he logged off of teamspeak without another word, and immediately collapsed into bed and tried his best to think about anything other than dream. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> happy october!! very exciting stuff. george's pov is actually proving to be a lot harder to write than i thought it would be, there's probably a reason i impulsively started writing from dream's perspective. ly guys!! have a good one


	3. bargaining

_ bargaining _

the first time george talked to dream since they met up, it was weird. 

it was extremely late at night for george, although a bit earlier for his american friends. he was biting his fingernails, something he hadn’t done since he as in high school. sapnap was texting back and forth with him about nothing important, and george desperately wanted to ask him if he had heard from dream yet. 

turns out, he didn’t have to. sapnap texted him about it first. 

_ sapnap: i take it dream hasn’t texted u back either? _

_ george: no _

_ george: has he texted u? _

_ sapnap: nope _

_ sapnap: can u call? i’ll try him on discord _

george bit his fingernail back a bit more. the days were blending together, but george knew that his mornings and nights had been filled with nothing but anxiety. every text message alert, twitter notification, or phone call made his heart stop. he was practically waiting for dream to text him saying,  _ hey ur weird for having a crush on me. don’t text back. _

george knew it was stupid, and that most of his anxiety wasn’t realistic, but it didn’t stop his mind from spiralling out of control. 

george’s phone starting buzzing in his hand, and he pressed the ‘answer’ button. he joined discord to see sapnap in the call and surprisingly, dream. george held his breath. 

“dream? what’s up man?” came sapnap’s voice. 

a pause followed, and george swore he could hear his heart beating in his ears, before finally dream spoke up. “hey? what’d you guys need?”

_ that was it?  _ dream hadn’t contacted either of them for  _ days  _ and dream’s response was just a ‘hey?’ had george over thought this whole thing? was dream really just silent because of his own reasons? george was so lost in thought he hadn’t even considered responding. 

sapnap chuckled awkwardly, “we don’t  _ need _ anything from you. we just wanted to, i don’t know, check up on you? it’s been a second since we all talked.”

“ok, so. hey . i don’t know what i should say.” came dream’s response, and all previous thoughts george had about dream not being angry went out the window. dream sounded upset, which was fairly rare for the man. he would get frustrated sometimes, but it would never escalate to him being actually emotional. especially not at george and sapnap. 

“dream?” george finally spoke up, “are you alright, man?” his voice sounded small and george hated it. he wanted so badly for things to go back to normal. even if that meant never having met up with dream in the first place. 

“yeah, of course.” dream snapped back. george’s stomach sank through the floor. he sounded  _ so  _ much angrier with george than he had with sapnap. george’s suspicions were quickly seeming like the most possible explanation; dream had found out george liked him. and now was trying his best to separate himself from george.

“dude, just listen to yourself. why do you sound so  _ mad  _ at us?” sapnap replied, and george was thankful. the thought of having to talk to dream again made him feel sick. 

“mad? i’m not mad, sapnap. i don’t need to talk you guys every single day. you guys aren’t the only friends i have.” came dream’s reply, still with the same amount of bite he had previously. george looked down at his feet. his head hurt and the back of his eyes prickled with what was most likely tears. dream never talked to them like this, and it was all george’s fault. 

“dream, you’re being weird. feel better, or something.” came sapnap final response, before a dial noise let george know he had left the call. george hesitated for a moment, thinking of anything he could say that would make this better. he came up blank, and pressed the end call button. 

george put his head in his hands and groaned aloud in frustration. soon after ending the call, george’s phone started buzzing again. this time, it was just sapnap. he picked up. 

“george?” came sapnap’s voice, and george didn’t say anything. he just wanted sapnap to fill the silence so that george’s annoying thoughts wouldn’t do it for him. 

“dude, i don’t know what’s with him.”

“it’s because of me.” george said quietly, hoping that it was loud enough for sapnap to hear him. 

“what? it’s not, i promise. dream isn’t angry at you for anything. it’s probably his own issues, you know?”

george didn’t say anything back for a moment, “no. it’s because of me. he  _ knows. _ ’ george regretted saying it almost immediately. he had never spoken to sapnap about his feelings for dream. he didn’t want to make things weird. they would often make jokes about dream and george dating, and internally george feared that if he spoke to sapnap about how he felt, it would change the dynamic of his friend group. but now, the dynamic already seemed pretty fucked. 

“knows what, george?” sapnap replied, sympathetically. something in his voice told george that he already knew what george was talking about. 

“when we met up,” george paused to take a deep breath, ‘i was all over him, sapnap. i think he knows that i. i like him.”

silence came from sapnap’s end, and george almost feared he had said the wrong thing. 

“george, dream doesn’t know you like him.” it was stated simple and matter of fact, and george questioned how sapnap could feel so certain about the subject. his own mind was constantly debating everything when it came to dream. 

“how do you know?” in george’s mind, everything pointed to dream knowing. the silence, the anger, the way dream was pulling back from him. 

“ _ because _ , if dream knew, he would’ve done something about it,” sapnap laughed,”you think a loud mouth like  _ dream  _ would be able to shut up about something like that?”

the tension eased in george’s chest and he thought a little bit clearer. it made sense, dream already made fun of george for never saying ‘ _ i love you’  _ and would always play along with the shippers’ jokes; george showing signs of having a crush on dream would  _ definitely  _ become a target of dream’s teasing. 

george hadn’t been aware of how long he had been silent until sapnap spoke again, “hey, i’ve really got to go to bed. you alright?” 

george nodded, before remembering sapnap couldn’t see him. “yeah,” he said aloud.

“okay, goodnight. i’ll talk to dream in the morning. it’s gonna be fine, george.” sapnap said earnestly. 

“goodnight, sapnap. thanks.”

  
  
  
  


george woke up the next morning to exactly three texts:

_ sapnap: talked to dream, he basically feels like u do. can u guys chill now _

and, 

_ dream: have u started on that plugin? i’d rly like to test it _

and finally, the text that made george a little uneasy, 

_ dream: <3 sorry for being dumb _

george really didn’t know what to make of all this. he was still half-awake, but he soon woke up with the realization that  _ dream wasn’t angry at him.  _ everything was fine, his brain had just made him feel like shit for nothing. they could go back to being friends and forget all of this had ever happened. 

right?

his mind flipped back and forth, weighing the possibilities. he was thankful sapnap had gone out of his way to clear things up with dream, but now george just felt more confused than ever. what did this mean for them now? 

he sighed and rubbed his hands over his eyes. he typed a message back to dream. 

_ george: yeah, i finished it. wanna play now? _

_ george: <3 me too btw. _

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> can we just pretend like dream's tweets never happened thanks bye


	4. depression

_ depression  _

george hadn’t been  _ sad,  _ necessarily. but, he could tell that something wasn’t right. he struggled to get out of bed some mornings. he just felt restrained and a bit numb. something was holding him back; holding him in bed a little bit longer, holding him from editing videos, holding him from talking to his friends as much as he’d like to. 

on the occasion that he would let himself into their discord calls, he would still laugh at the jokes dream and sapnap would make. he would still joke back and smile and talk. it felt like a front. like george was on autopilot, imitating how he acted with his friends any other day of the year. george would make comments he didn’t mean to make, he would make jokes that might’ve been too much, sometimes acting obnoxiously just because it was the first thing that came to his mind. his brain was grasping at straws, trying to act like george normally did. he didn’t think his friends noticed, and george didn’t know how that made him feel. 

he didn’t feel happy. he hadn’t felt happy for awhile, but sometimes, when george would let out a fake laugh at someone’s joke, he wondered if he would feel happy again. 

  
  
  


george was playing minecraft on the smp, joking around with sapnap and dream. his boredom was ever so slowly kicking in, the mundane tasks of mining and farming becoming incredibly tedious. when the monotony became too much, he made the long journey to tubbo’s house in order to get mending books for his armor. when he got there, he frustratingly realized he didn’t have enough emeralds. he went through tubbo’s chests in search of any extras, to no avail. he almost gave up, when he opened a final chest. 

the chest was full of flowers, most likely stored for tubbo’s bees. stacks upon stacks of every color of flower were present.

_ tubbo wouldn’t miss a couple flowers, would he? _

  
  
  


“dream! i have a gift for you.” he shouted into his mic, running towards dream’s character. 

“yeah? well hand it over.” dream replied, his voice was smooth and kind. it took everything in george to ignore how it made his chest warm up. 

george hovered over the flowers in his inventory, before dropping them all over the floor dramatically. dream laughed on the other end, and it did something to make the strings in george’s chest less tense. 

“jesus, george,” dream said, snickering through his words, “where’d you even get all of these?”

“i went to tubbo’s to steal some books, and he just had chests full of them. so, i confiscated them.” george replied.

“how romantic, george, you stole from a child to give me flowers,” dream said, still giggling. 

george’s breath stopped in his throat for a moment. he let out a low chuckle, but his mind was elsewhere. he was  _ flirting  _ with dream. he wasn’t even intending to, it was just coming naturally. george’s stomach swirled unpleasantly and his throat felt cold and dry. it wasn’t helping his situation; he was trying to get over dream, or at the very least get their friendship out of the awkward pit it had fallen into. 

the conversation stumbled into silence, and george hoped that it at least felt comfortable for dream. george was shifting in his seat constantly, trying to focus on the mining he was doing, but unable to keep his mind still. the silence felt suffocating. 

_ fuck this,  _ george thought, before finally deciding to speak up. 

“hey, i think i’m going to stream.” george paused, wanting to ask something else, “you good?” he wasn’t sure why it felt important to ask, they’d always been open and comfortable with each other before. it was just further proof how far their relationship had gone off the rails since they’d met up. 

‘yeah, of course,” dream replied, and george let out a sigh at how calm he sounded. dream didn’t sound stiff or uncomfortable talking to george, and george was thankful for that. he could barely keep up a conversation with the man considering his own discomfort, he didn’t know what he would do if they were both in this situation. 

dream dismissed himself quietly, promising to be back soon, and george set to work on setting up his stream. within ten minutes, george was live and working on a tweet to send out to his followers. he started to feel better when the donations came in, providing george a constant flow of entertainment and conversation to focus on. 

it wasn’t the most entertaining stream, george reserved most of it to answering questions and saying hi to fans, but it was nice. he felt normal again, more normal than george had felt in a long time. dream didn’t end up coming back for a while, making his entrance to the stream by giving george and sapnap a jumpscare and proceeding to chase them around with a threatening netherite axe. 

the stream, along with their discord call, ended several hours later, both dissolving into laughter and happy smiles. 

it wasn’t until george turned off his monitors and tucked into bed did he realize how much the silence bothered him. his ceiling fan whirred loudly, providing a dull roar for george’s thoughts to run out of control. the happiness that had been settled in his stomach was long gone, instead lied a bitter and heavy feeling. 

it had been so long since george had experienced any sort of normalcy with dream, and now that it was over, george felt incredibly empty. he naturally reached for his phone, wanting to continue the contact with his friend, wanting desperately for the happiness to return. 

_ george: stream was fun today _

george didn’t hesitate to continue typing. 

_ george: ive missed u _

it came across as desperate and silly, and george felt the pinpricks of tears in his eyes. he knew he should’ve stopped talking and let dream text him back on his own time. but, at this point george’s mind was on a different planet than his body. 

_ george: idk y u went awol but if u ever need to talk lmk _

the moments in between george sending his texts and seeing the symbol that dream had started typing were the longest seconds george had ever experienced in his life. 

_ dream: thanks gogy _

_ dream: missed u 2 _

george let out a sigh of relief and his chest warmed at the endearing nickname. it was stupid, gogy was a nickname that everyone used for him. it wasn’t special, but it was hard for george to remind himself of that in the moment. 

_ george: <3 _

it was careless, george knew that much. but, george also knew he was sleep deprived and drunk off of rare happiness. he couldn’t find in himself to care that the emoticon could be perceived as flirting. so, he pressed send. 

dream didn’t respond until the next morning, ignoring george’s last text.

george told himself that being ignored was better than being found out. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> finally updating!! unfortunately it's because i've been depressed because the girl i've been in love with for three years broke up with me!!!!!! hahah fuck. at least some positives came out of it i guess. 
> 
> anyway, final chapter will be up in a bit ! it's happier i promise :-) ly guys!!!!!!


	5. acceptance

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> tw ! for swearing ! it's not over the top or aggressive, it's all in good fun but stay safe!!! ly

_acceptance_

for the first time since he saw dream at the airport, he felt normal talking to him on a regular basis. hearing dream’s staticky voice soothed something in his chest, but it wasn’t completely self-indulgent. he had an excuse this time, he and sapnap couldn’t let him fall back into whatever state of mind dream had been in.

it was silently agreed between the three of them to constantly be on call with each other, especially with dream. it was never stated in explicit terms what had been on dream’s mind, at least not with george, but it wasn’t something the three of them discussed. none of them wanted to accidentally trigger something in dream and send him spiraling again. 

george had a feeling sapnap knew why dream had gotten depressed, he had seen dream and him in a channel together at the latest hours of the evening on several occasions. he never intervened, afraid to find out something he didn’t want to know. sapnap and dream never told him, so george didn’t think about it. it clearly wasn’t something he was supposed to think about. 

sapnap had attempted to reach out to george, either over text or call, and talk to him alone. george was thankful that they were hardly ever alone nowadays. he dreaded having _that_ conversation with sapnap; he dreaded the pitiful words sapnap would feed him. sapnap didn’t get it, he didn’t understand why george had to stay quiet about his feelings. it worried george, sapnap could be bold and brash and impulsive. 

he was worried sapnap would say something he wasn’t supposed to, and the whole facade would come crumbling down. george chewed on his lip, his tongue flicking over the fresh wounds that had been created in that spot. the bittersweet taste of metallic blood entered his mouth. he had been worried a lot, recently. 

  
  


he was still worried when he finally decided to join sapnap and dream in their discord call. they’d been in there for hours already, when it had been early morning, even for george. he’d put off joining, not wanting to interrupt their conversation. he expected for them to break off at some point, to join a larger channel with more people or even to text george to join their own call. it never happened, and now it was midday and george was incredibly bored. 

he clicked to join the call, his webcam turning green to signal it had turned on. george wasn’t always a huge talker, so having his webcam on let the others know he was still present. 

“ _-king life!_ ” the loud voice screeched through george’s headset. george winced slightly, still too groggy to listen to the yelling. 

“george!” sapnap’s voice came through his headset, and george took the opportunity to turn down his volume. “thank _god_ , you’re here. dream needs someone to talk sense into him.”

muffled, dream said, “sapnap, i swear to god.”

“what? why?” george was genuinely concerned. dream hadn’t been the healthiest lately, to say the least. george was worried what he could possibly need advice on, especially since he’d seemed so unwilling to share with george previously. 

“sapnap. leave it.”

of course, sapnap didn’t leave it alone, “georgie, our dear friend dream has gotten himself into a pickle,” 

a pause. 

“dream’s a coward, and he refuses to tell the person he likes that he likes them.”

george’s face flushed red and his mouth dropped open slightly. his heart clenched around nothing. he didn’t feel qualified to give dream advice on anything, let alone _relationships._

he’d thought better of sapnap as well. _had sapnap just forgot their conversations?_ had sapnap just forgotten that george _liked_ dream? or did he just not care enough about george’s own feelings? did sapnap really not think about how much it would hurt george to talk to dream about his love life?

in the background, dream and sapnap were briefly arguing. the sound of someone leaving the call played out, and george was brought back to reality. it was just him and dream now. 

“um-” george started, pausing to cough. his throat felt unnaturally dry. “who is it, then?” 

he sounded like a toddler, learning how to speak for the first time. his voice was monotone and the words stumbled out of his mouth without a second thought. 

dream didn’t answer, and for a second george almost thought he had hallucinated replying in the first place. 

“i mean, you should probably just tell them right? it’s not healthy to keep all of it bottled up like that.” george said eventually. 

_you’re one to talk._

the soft sound of laughter came from the other end, quietly confirming that dream _was_ still on the other end and actually listening to what george had to say. george didn’t know if that was reassuring or not. 

““uhh, it’s um, heh.” dream exhaled roughly, “it’s you. i like you.”

maybe it’s because george was bad at this, but there was no fireworks or a running kiss on the beach. there was an awkward silence and a dull headache. the breath in george’s throat got stuck on a sharp inhale and he choked. 

“can you- can you turn your cam on?” george finally said. he still didn’t feel like his brain was working with his voice, but he did need to see dream’s face. desperately, he needed to see dream say those words to him. he needed to know they were honest. 

the sharp clicking of a keyboard was heard of the other end of the call, letting george know that dream was doing as he had asked. a moment later, dream’s blurry, low quality facecam lit up his screen. 

dream’s face was pale, reflecting his computer screen light. his hair was ruffled messily. george breathed out heavily with relief. 

“can you, uh, say it again?” george said, and if he had enough sense he would’ve laughed at himself. 

dream’s head dropped, looking at his desk. a deep breath in. 

“i like you.”

this time it was clear, in more ways than one, what dream had said. george almost laughed with elation. 

_holy shit._ “you mean it.” it came out more as a statement, rather than a question, “i like you, too.”

“huh?” dream said, too loudly. george cracked an even bigger smile. something bloomed in his chest, right above his heart. 

“ _i like you._ ” george looked directly in dream’s eyes, even if dream wouldn’t have been able to tell over the call. he laughed softly, the relief he felt was overwhelming. 

“we’re fucking _idiots_ ,” dream groaned, still smiling. 

“yeah, jesus.” george breathed out another sigh, the tension leaving every part of his body with a single exhale, “god, dream. i thought you hated me.”

“hated you? what? why?”

“because,” george huffed, “you should’ve seen the vlog footage, i was all over you. i thought you had, like, figured out i liked you and hated me for it.” 

dream stared at him blankly, shaking his head with a smile. 

“send me _all_ of that footage.”

george laughed, “sure. can’t use any of it anyway, the stans would go crazy.”

dream grinned, “so no vlog?” 

george shook his head. “ _what vlog?_ ”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> and they lived happily ever after
> 
> the end ;-;
> 
> this was such a fun series!! i loved it a whole bunch, i've never actually gotten emotional at something i've written before but this one kinda hit hard. i hope you guys enjoyed it as much as i did, remember to leaves KUDOS AND COMMENTS they give me so much serotonin <3
> 
> I LOVE YOU GUYSSSSS BYEEEEEEE


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